The centerpiece
If you want takeout turkey, your choice is sliced or whole.
If you want sliced turkey, your choice is roasted or smoked. Find sliced roasted turkey at The Perfect Dinner, The Depot and Wishbone. Find sliced smoked turkey at Wishbone.
If you want a whole turkey, your choice is roasted, smoked or deep-fried. Find a whole roasted turkey at Wishbone and at The Marion Street Cheese Market. Find a whole smoked turkey at Wishbone. Find a whole deep-friend turkey at Briejo.
If you want a whole roasted turkey, your choice is conventional or free-range. The whole roasted turkeys at Wishbone are conventional; at Marion Street Cheese Market, they’re free-range.
If you don’t want turkey-or any meat, you’ve also got a takeout choice that’s traditional hazelnut-cranberry roast. At Whole Foods Market in River Forest, where you can get all the choices above except for a deep-fried turkey, you also have this vegan option.
The sides
Stuffing choices range from such basics as a sage stuffing at The Depot and a multi-herb stuffing at The Perfect Dinner to a brioche stuffing at Briejo, a sausage stuffing at Wishbone and a cranberry and chestnut stuffing at Marion Street Cheese Market.
Other sides range from basics like mashed potatoes everywhere to such specialties as tomato-okra stew and Hoppin’ Jack (as opposed to John) at Wishbone-black beans and rice topped with cheddar cheese, scallions and tomato, and smothered cabbage at Briejo.
The desserts
If it’s a round-up of pies you need, the largest assortment is at The Depot, where you’ll find lemon cream, coconut cream and chocolate cream in addition to sweet potato, pumpkin, pecan and apple pies. At Wishbone, there’s bread pudding, rice pudding, apple-cranberry crisp, peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler in addition to sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie. At The Perfect Dinner, which has Dutch apple pie, there’s also pumpkin cheesecake.
In both Oak Park and Forest Park, there’s another way to get pumpkin in a dessert: gelato. At Mancini’s in downtown Oak Park, where owner Al Mancini this year invested in equipment from Italy to make his own gelato, you can get the ice-creamlike treat by the pound ($16). At Paciugo in Forest Park, the only Illinois outpost of a national gelato chain, there are two choices to consider for Thanksgiving: sweet potato pie gelato and pumpkin pie gelato.